RFP ANNOUNCEMENT: MOLECULAR LIBRARIES SMALL MOLECULE REPOSITORY – RFP-RM-04-001
RELEASE DATE: December 23, 2003
NOTICE: NOT-RM-04-003
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
(http://www.nimh.nih.gov/)
PROPOSAL RECEIPT DATE: March 2, 2004
DESCRIPTION
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is soliciting proposals from
qualified businesses/organizations to establish, maintain/operate, and replenish
the Small Molecule Repository. The Small Molecule Repository will be a component
of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap Molecular Libraries initiative
for the creation of an NIH small molecule library and screening centers (for
additional information on the NIH Roadmap, see http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/). The
Small Molecule Repository will offer public sector biomedical researchers access to
small organic molecules that can be used as chemical probes to study cellular
pathways in greater depth and will provide new ways to explore the functions of
major components of the cell in health and disease. In order to provide these
benefits, the library of small molecules must contain a sufficient number of
diverse compounds to be screened for a large number of possible new activities and
applications. To build such a library, a contract will be established to acquire,
maintain, and distribute a collection of approximately 1,000,000 chemically diverse
small molecules of both known and unknown activities. An NIH Molecular Libraries
Coordinating Committee and an external scientific advisory group will help identify
candidate compounds to be acquired from government, academic, industry and
commercial sources. Over time, this collection will be expanded and modified to
include compounds that are capable of interacting with an increasing number and
diversity of biomolecular target domains. The development of such libraries will
provide probes for studying molecular events, pathways, and networks in biologic
systems that span the scale from single cells to whole organisms.
Requirements for the Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository include the
following tasks:
1) Compound Identification and Library Development. The contractor, in
coordination with the NIH Molecular Libraries Coordinating Committee and an
external scientific advisory group, shall identify candidate compounds from
government, academic, industry and commercial sources, and acquire a collection of
approximately 1,000,000 compounds meeting criteria to be specified by the
Government Project Officer (GPO)/Coordinating Committee (i.e., stability,
solubility, availability of sufficient quantities, ease of re-supply or re-
synthesis, diversity).
2) Handling, Plating and Distribution. All compounds shall be bar-coded and
arrayed in sets suitable for supplying to high-throughput screening (HTS)
facilities. The contractor shall have the capability to array compounds into both
96 and 384 well plates to produce arrays in formats suitable for long term storage
and distribution. The contractor shall also have the ability to produce arrays in
other formats suitable for distribution (i.e., daughter-plates developed from plate
replication or reformatting into higher density 1536 or 3456 well plates).
Compound arrays shall be distributed to the Molecular Library Screening Centers and
other interested HTS facilities. The contractor shall also provide arrays of
compounds to investigators on a fee for service basis.
3) Storage. The contractor shall provide dry storage of compounds as well as
storage of compounds in solution. Compounds shall be stored under conditions that
ensure optimal stability and purity. The contractor shall provide the necessary
expertise, equipment, and facilities to store, maintain, and track the compound
collection inventory. The contractor shall monitor the stability of compounds in
the library (e.g., analysis by LC/MS, HPLC, and/or NMR).
4) Re-supply and Re-synthesis. The contractor shall monitor the compound inventory
to ensure that sufficient quantities of all compounds (typically between 5 and
30mg) are available to support screening needs. As compounds become depleted the
Contractor shall purchase sufficient quantities of the compound to replenish the
inventory. The Contractor shall have the ability to synthesize, at a minimum
purity of 90%, sufficient quantities of depleted compounds that cannot be re-
purchased.
5) Informatics. The Contractor shall provide the necessary informatics support to
track compound inventory and distribution, including maintenance of a compound
collection inventory database and a shipping and distribution database. The
contractor shall create and maintain a repository website, describing the program
and providing a list of available compound arrays. The contractor shall also have
the capability of interfacing any repository informatics systems with other
Molecular Libraries databases and informatics systems.
6) Confidentiality. The contractor may be acquiring and handling some proprietary
compounds under this contract. In order to acquire such compounds, the suppliers
may require their rights to inventions using these materials be fully protected.
Therefore, the NIMH may request, as specified in FAR 27.303, a deviation for this
contract from the standard patent rights clause, FAR 52.227-11, Patent Rights –
Retention by the Contractor (Short Form) (June 1997), which if approved would
restrict the Contractor's rights in subject inventions involving such proprietary
compounds. Public comments shall be solicited in the Federal Business
Opportunities (as a Special Notice) and also in the solicitation for this contract,
before a deviation is requested.
The NIMH anticipates the award of one (1) contract for a base period of
approximately 52 months, plus five (5) one-year options. RFP No. RM-04-0001 will
be available electronically on or about December 29, 2003. You can access the RFP
through the FedBizOpps (URL: http://www.fedbizopps.gov), through the NIH Roadmap
Grants and Funding Opportunities website (URL:
http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/grants/index.asp), or through the NIMH website (URL:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/grants/indexcon.cfm#RequestforProposal). Please note that
NIMH uses the streamlined RFP format that includes only the statement of work,
deliverables, reporting requirements, any special requirements, mandatory
qualifications (if any), technical evaluation criteria, and other necessary
proposal preparation instructions. All information required for the submission of
a proposal is contained in or accessible through the streamlined RFP package.
Response to the RFP will be due on or about March 1, 2004. NIMH will consider
proposals submitted by any responsible offeror. This advertisement does not commit
the government to award a contract.
Contracting Office Address:
Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
Contract Management Branch
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8155, MSC 9661
Bethesda, MD 20892-9661
Rockville, MD 20852 (for express/courier service)
Point of Contact:
Bruce E. Anderson, Contracting Officer, Voice: (301) 443-2234, Fax: (301) 443-0501
Email: ba9i@nih.gov